Maybe I won’t have to travel with my white noise maker or ear plugs anymore.

Loud hotel guests, especially when they occupy the room next to mine, or, worse, on either side or even a floor above me, are my biggest travel gripe and stress causer.

I always ask the check-in desk to be sure my room is not next to a wedding party or other merry-makers (or an elevator, above the kitchen or near a landing). By then the check-in staff are asking me if I’m sure I want to sleep at a hotel at all, or wouldn’t I just rather go home.

Enter the “Sleep Police.”
According to MSNBC, Travelodge UK has hired “sleep monitors,” specially trained staff to walk the hotel’s halls and monitor noise levels from guests. They warn the overly obstreperous they’re in violation, which means they can be forced to pack up and move to another room, or be asked to leave altogether.

Actually Travelodge calls its sleep police by the more soothing term, “The Zzz Squad” and features the team on its site’s home page. There’s a link to a You Tube video ( Mr. Sleep and the Zzz Squad) featuring some rather sweet, but tough-talking bears enforcing the no-noise rule.

The subject must hit home, because the 30 second video has racked up some 10,000 + views in the month it’s been posted.

As a spokesperson said that Travelodge knows that sleep deprivation is a major source of traveler stress, and has ordered its delivery trucks not to make deliveries in the early morning.

They’re not alone.

The Kimpton Hotels have what they call a “noise waiver” notice posted at the check-in desk warning guests that the hotel has the right to ask them not to party or make noise after 10:00 p.m. But if offending guests don’t “cease and desist,” they may forfeit deposits or room charges-and they may actually incur charges from the room of those complaining.

In the case of couples making love too loudly, some distressed (or jealous) guests forcefully knock on the couple’s door and that, as one person noted, pretty much stops things cold.